Conferences & Lectures
2024-2025
2023-2024
We congragulate the winners of the 2024 "East Central Europe between East and West Realism and Fantasy" FORUM! The first place winner is Shannon Artman, and tied for second place are Zuzanna Wojtasik and Charles Chengary.
Professor Merchant's class enjoyed Professor Romanowski's lecture From left: John Merchant, Bozena McLees, Piotr Romanowski, and Victoria Granacki
To register and learn more about this FREE EVENT please follow this link!
Presented in partnership with the Polish American Historical Association and the Polish Museum of America, join us for an exciting symposium delving into Chicago’s Polish history!
The Koscuiszko Foundation scholar Dr. Maciej Olchawa organized a panel to discuss the outcome of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and how it will shape the security of all of Europe, and if the Kremlin succeeds in its genocidal war to subjugate the Ukrainian nation, Poland may be next. This concern is not new for Poland, and the roots of its ongoing support for Ukraine may be traced back to the concepts of prometheism and 20th-century Polish attempts at mobilizing nationalism against Moscow in the Soviet borderlands. What was prometheism, and how does it continue to shape Poland’s foreign policy? How was this doctrine pursued by Polish and Ukrainian émigrés during the Cold War? How does Putin’s regime react to efforts at mobilizing nationalism in post-Soviet states? Please join us as we address these questions during the webinar “Prometheism and Power: Mobilizing Nationalism to Confront the Russian Empire.”
2022-2023
The spring semester public lecture took place at the Ukranian Institute of Modern ARt located in the Ukranian Village. The Ukranian and Polish members of the audience were very genaged in the question and answer session with the presenter.
2021-2022
The Polish Studies Program introduces a new initiatve designed in collaboration with The Kosciuszko Foundation, where generous donors established in 2022 a fund to bring to Loyola scholars in varies disciplines. Our first Kosciuszko Foundation Scholar is Dr. Maciej Olchawa, who will teach a course about Polish, Ukranian, and Russian relations in the Department of Political Science. We are pleased to sponsor his inaugural public lecture at the Polish Museum of America.
2020-2021
In-Class Guest Speakers
Professor John Merchant host speakers in his Polish American Literature classes. Click on the hyperlinked texts to be redirected to the lecture on Panopto.
- Dominic Pacyga, Polish American historian
- John Guzłowski, Polish American poet
- Anthony Bukoski, Polish American writer
- Martyna Majok, Polish American writer, Pulitzer Prize Winner for Drama
- Yuriy Serebryansky, Polish writer
Live conversation with Polish film director Ms. Agnieszka Holland
with Zbigniew Banaś, Małgorzata Pośpiech and Bożena Nowicka McLees
Polish Films and Discussion on "Corpus Christi"
Film discussion with Professor Zbigniew Banaś, LUC Polish Studies Instructor of Polish and European Cinema
2019-2020
The Pucinski Conference has been featured in Dziennik Zwiazkowy, a Polish newspaper.
Please click here to read it!
2018-2019
Polish American Historical Association 75th Anniversary Conference
September 7-9, 2018
Members of Polish American Historical Association
On September 7-9, Loyola University Chicago hosted a conference to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Polish American Historical Society (PAHA) - an institution whose mission is to research and promote the history and culture of the Polish Diaspora and Polonia. Participants in the conference included historians, sociologists and other researchers from both the United States and Poland, who presented lectures on topics ranging from research on the history of Polonia and immigration to achievements and challenges PAHA faces for the future.
PAHA Panel: Quo Vadis Polish American Studies
In addition to lectures and discussion panels, the conference’s participants had the opportunity to visit Loyola University’s Lake Shore Campus, watch the film The Fourth Partition and visit historically significant landmarks for Polonia in Chicago.
The conference was organized in partnership with the Senate of the Republic of Poland, the Polish Academy of Learning, and the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Representatives of many Polish and American institutions and organizations including the Chicago Polish Museum, the Museum of Polish History in Warsaw, the Chicago History Museum, the Immigration Museum in Gdansk and the Józef Piłsudski Institute in New York also participated in the event.
PAHA Panel: Polish American History Museums
Half of the conference participants were researchers from Poland, which demonstrates the growing interest in the history of Polonia and the Polish diaspora in Poland.
Professor Dominik Pacyga
Dr. Dominik Pacyga, an American historian of Polonia, summed up the significance of the conference saying “PAHA is a very important organization. Polonia needs to know their history to understand their present. For 75 years, the organization has been helping researchers who study the history of Polonia reach an American academic audience.
Professor Anna Mazurkiewicz, PAHA President
PAHA can boast of many achievements, and the organization, thanks to an influx of new members, especially young researchers from Poland, has a bright future ahead. New and fresh ideas come with young people. I am sure that PAHA will continue to develop dynamically, and in 25 years will be celebrating its 100th anniversary”
Bozena Nowcka McLees and Dean Fr. Thomas Reagan
The director of the Polish Studies Program at Loyola University Chicago, Bożena Nowicka McLees, highlighted that “In recent years, the organization has been able to consolidate studies devoted to the diaspora, and especially to Polonia in America, to attract a larger group of researchers from Poland and bring together their research with the work of researchers studying Polonia in the United States. For decades these two groups were separate, but over the last twenty years, the situation has changed radically. This change can be seen at PAHA’s anniversary conference - half of its presenters came from Poland. Thanks to this, there is an authentic exchange of opinions, research and observations, which is very valuable from an academic point of view.”
Quotes for this summary were taken from an article published in Polish by Dziennik Zwiazkowy on September 18, 2018.
Access the program here
The Lira Ensemble concert in the evening of the conference
Tour of Polish Chicago for conference guests
2017-2018
Loyola Celebrates 10 Years of the Polish Studies Program
Professor Bozena Nowicka McLees and Vice Consul Piotr Semeniuk
Anthony Bukoski Visits Loyola
November 10th & 11th, 2017
Yuriy Serebryansky Visits Loyola
September 20th, 2017
2015-2016
Film screening of Jan Karski and the Lords of Humanity and Panel
April 8
Slawomir Grunberg’s documentary “Karski and the Lords of Humanity” presents an engaging, multifaceted portrait of the legendary Polish resistance fighter who tirelessly tried to open the eyes of the world to the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II. Grunberg deftly combines documentary footage of a Karski’s recollection of the events with other interviews, old photographs, and even animated sequences to create a cohesive and persuasive account of how the leaders of the most powerful nations chose to remain deaf to his pleas for an urgent intervention. The nature of this documentary forcefully emphasizes the contrast between Karski’s selfless efforts and the indifference of those who were in a position to affect meaningful change.
Slawomir Greenburg, Tom Wood, Bozena Nowicka McLees, and Zbigniew Banas.
Film screening of The Fourth Partition and discussion with director
November 11
Chicago Catholic Immigrants Conference:
The Poles Program
CCIC The Poles Poster
November 13-14, 2015
When Do Reconciliation and Cooperation Matter?
November 18, 2015
Past Events
Film Discussion with Marek Probosz and Zbigniew Banas, photo by Bożena Nowicka McLees
2014-2015
April 15th
Ida Film Screening and Discussion with Zbigniew Banas
March 19th
Śmierć Rotmistrza Pileckiego The Death of Captain Pilecki with guest actor Marek Probosz
September 19-20th
2013-2014
November 13th
Film Screening and Discussion with Bożena Garus-Hockuba
November 12th
Modern Language & Literatures Language Fair, Fall 2013
2012-2013
April 13th
John Merchant Lecture - "Polish-American Poetry: Reading Between the Lines"
November 27th
Anna Ferens documentary filmmaker Anna Ferens Film Screening "Co mogą martwi jeńcy/What Can Dead Prisoners Do"
October 29th
Jan Karski - THE MAN WHO TRIED TO STOP THE HOLOCAUST
September 22nd
John Merchant Inaugural Lecture
2012
April 21st and 22nd
Polish Language Certification Exam
April 18th
Polish Studies Scholarships and Awards Ceremony with Polish Student Alliance and Loyola's Polish American Alumni Network
April 12th
Undergraduate Student FORUM Competition of Undergraduates Students' Papers on Central and Eastern Europe
March 24th
Plocieniak Polish Language Fluency Exam (for upcoming seniors)
March 22nd
Lecture on Jewish Culture in Poland
March 1st
4 Polish American Poets Reading Poetry
2011
April 19th
FORUM - Competition of Undergraduates Students' Papers on Central and Eastern Europe
April 12th
Polish Resistance AK Foundation Lecture
April 2nd
Plocieniak Scholarship Polish Language Exam
February 22nd
Shana Penn Lecture: Women in the SOLIDARITY Movement
November 17th
An Evening of Poetry and Music with Adam Zagajewski and Sarah Rothenberg
November 7th
Polish film screening and discussion with director Magdalena Lazarkiewicz
2010
April 28th
Poland and its Performative Democracy
November 12th - 13th
CHOPIN & PADEREWSKI 2010 International Conference
September 27th
The Polish Resistance (AK) Foundation Endowed Scholarship
2009
February 16th
Poetry with Teeth Lecture by Ewa Chruściel, Ph.D.